Referring To The Party Formerly Known As The Republicans . . . Fascists, GQP, Know-Nothings, Trumpists, Authoritarian Death Cult, Trolls, ____________?

Democrats are clueless about what's going on and how to respond. Or perhaps they knows what's up but don't care. That would explain their unwillingness to fight back for the last (at least) 45 years.

I don’t like calling Republicans “Republicans” because they bear scant resemblance to Republicans of the past. The party now publicly rejects principles that were bedrock beliefs not so long ago, although some of those ideas, like “smaller government”, have always been a fiction.

They don’t even bother pretending as though they give a shit about governing. They spend a vast majority of their time inciting hatred towards the least-protected and marginalized people in society, praising authoritarians like Putin and Victor Orbán, and performing childish acts of faux outrage about the stupidest bullshit: jack-booted stove police, candy you wouldn’t want to fuck, the outlawing of chocolate milk, the downsizing of a cartoon character’s tits, the gender of Mr. Potato Head, and endless moronitude about Muppets, Oreos, Dr. Seuss, and dozens and dozens of other distractions. What is this facade of idiocy distracting you from? The top priorities is taking firm control of state elections and inventing new, insidious ways of voter suppression and nullification, stealing money from poor and middle-class Americans and funneling it to super-wealthy motherfuckers, and basically lying their fucking heads off about everything.

These things happened yesterday:

Missouri Republicans Block Law Against Children Carrying Guns In Public

U.S. Fifth Circuit Court Of Appeals Rules Domestic Abusers Can Keep Their Guns

Mississippi GOP Wants To Create New White-Appointed Court In Black-Run City (Shades Of Apartheid)

Iowa Republicans Introduce Bill To Allow Children To Work In Mining, Logging, And Animal-Slaughtering Jobs (While Destroying 100+ Years Of Child Labor Laws & Protecting Businesses If A Child Is Maimed Or Killed On The Job)

What will today bring?

Stories:

Missouri Republicans Block Proposed Ban On Kids Carrying Guns In Public

The Republican-controlled Missouri House of Representatives rejected a proposal Wednesday that would have banned children from being able to openly carry firearms on public land without adult supervision.

The proposal, which was part of a long debate in the chamber on how to fight crime in St. Louis, was defeated by a vote of 104-39, with just one Republican voting in support of the ban. After the amendment on the open-carry restrictions for minors was initially supported by the Republican legislator sponsoring a broader crime bill, GOP lawmakers on a committee that he leads removed the firearms provision last week. . . .

State Rep. Donna Baringer (D), who represents St. Louis and sponsored the amendment to H.B. 301, said she brought the proposal to the chamber after police in her district requested tighter regulations to stop “14-year-olds walking down the middle of the street in the city of St. Louis carrying AR-15s.” . . .

The defeat of the proposal comes at a time when gun control activists are worried about the aftershocks from last year’s Supreme Court decision that the Second Amendment generally protects the rights of law-abiding Americans to carry a handgun outside the home for self-defense. . . .

“I am old enough to remember when Missouri Republicans were pretending to care about gun violence in St. Louis. Like, 2 days ago,” Post-Dispatch columnist Tony Messenger tweeted on Friday. “That was short-lived.” . . .

State Rep. Peter Merideth (D) argued that the state cares more about drag shows than children openly carrying guns. One bill currently proposed in Missouri notes that it wants to change “the definition of a sexually oriented business to include any nightclub or bar that provides drag performances.” Another proposed bill would categorize drag performances on public property or viewed by minors as Class A misdemeanors.

(Also here and here)

“Terrifying”: Advocates Say Court Ruling Letting Domestic Abusers Keep Guns Defies “Common Sense”

In an opinion that sent shock waves through gun control and domestic violence advocacy circles, the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals ruled last week that the Second Amendment allows people under protective orders for committing domestic violence to keep their guns. . . .

In 2021 alone, 127 women in Texas were murdered by their male intimate partners with firearms, according to the Texas Council on Family Violence. Across the country, an average of 70 women each month are killed by their partners with guns. Research has shown that a domestic violence victim's risk of death is five times higher when their abuser has access to a gun. . . .

[Mikisha] Hooper [the coordinated community response manager at the Texas Council on Family Violence] amassed the stories of 204 victims of intimate-partner homicide in 2021. . . . Hooper said that the ruling will make survivors of domestic violence less safe — and less likely to pursue protective orders that may already seem risky for those in danger.

“This Is Just Crazy”: Iowa GOP’s Child Labor Bill Would Let Kids Work “Dangerous” Jobs

Labor advocates on Tuesday decried a business-backed bill introduced by Republican state lawmakers in Iowa that would roll back child labor laws so that teens as young as 14 could work in previously prohibited jobs including mining, logging, and animal slaughtering—a proposal one union president called dangerous and “just crazy.” . . .

Teens under 18 would still be generally barred from employment in fields including mining, logging, demolition, and meatpacking, and from operating potentially dangerous machinery and equipment including circular saws, guillotine shears, and punching machines.

However, the Des Moines Register reports the proposed law contains “an entirely new section” that “would allow the Iowa Workforce Development and state Department of Education heads to make exceptions to any of the prohibited jobs for teens 14-17 ‘participating in work-based learning or a school or employer-administered, work-related program.’” . . .

[Charlie] Wishman [president of the Iowa Federation of Labor, AFL-CIO] said the bill will gut more than a century of child labor protections, many of which were enacted in an era when “children were hurt and killed” on the job.

“It’s Oppressive”: Mississippi GOP Votes To Create New White-Appointed Court In Black-Run City

The Republican-dominated Mississippi House of Representatives on Tuesday approved the creation of a new court system that will be appointed by state officials — all of whom are white — for the capital of Jackson, which is 80% Black and home to a higher percentage of Black residents than any major American city, according to Mississippi Today.

The change would be a break from the rest of the state, where judges and prosecutors are elected by voters.

After over four hours of debate, the chamber passed the bill that would create an unelected state-appointed court system within the city of Jackson and would also expand a separate capitol police force, overseen by state authorities.

The bill has faced significant criticism since it was first introduced last month. During the debate, the state’s Black caucus compared the bill to the state’s Jim Crow-era constitution of 1890.

Jackson Mayor Chokwe Antar Lumumba said last week that it “reminds me of apartheid.”

“It’s oppressive because it strips the right of Black folks to vote,” Lumumba said. “It’s oppressive because it puts a military force over people that has no accountability to them. It’s oppressive because there will be judges who will determine sentences over people’s lives. It’s oppressive because it redirects their tax dollars to something they don’t endorse nor believe in.” . . .

[T]he bill passed 76-38 Tuesday mostly along party lines and will now travel to the state senate, where Republicans also hold a significant majority. . . .

“Only in Mississippi would we have a bill like this,” [Rep. Edward] Blackmon [D-Canton] said, “where we say solving the problem requires removing the vote from Black people.”

Also from Mississippi:

“There Are No White People There”: Jackson’s Water Crisis, Explained

Mississippi’s GOP Governor Vetoes Bipartisan Bill To Curtail Jim Crow-Era Voting Restriction

Mississippi Governor Designates April As Confederate Heritage Month

So what should they be called? “Fascists” is accurate, but often used as a perjorative adjective, “GQP” acknowledges their steady promotion of (and reliance on) the most absurb QAnon beliefs, “Know-Nothings” resurrects the name of a now non-existent U.S. party and nods in the direction of their fear of knowledge and denial of reality. “Trumpists” might work because, despite a reported (but unstated) desire to rid themselves of the Real Estate Rapist, the party remains terrified to mutter anything in opposition to the long-time Russian asset hiding out amid foreign spies in a Florida health-club. Some variation on “Death Cult” for their blithe attitudes about killing off their own supporters? Insane Clown Posse?

“Trolls” is particularly apt, as Amanda Marcotte, a Salon columnist and author of Troll Nation: How The Right Became Trump-Worshipping Monsters Set On Rat-F*cking Liberals, America, and Truth Itself, points out in her Standing Room Only newsletter::

Trolling has become the main, often sole, rhetorical tactic of Republicanst. As I argue in my book “Troll Nation,” trolling is the strategy of last resort for a party that has no good ideas and can only compete in destructive, grievance-driven ways. But there’s also no doubt that trolling works for them in a number of ways. For one thing, it gets attention. But just as importantly, it puts your opponents in a reactive position. An opponent’s outrage, denials, even mockery: It all serves not just to amplify the troll’s message, but the response itself makes people wonder if there’s something to the false accusation that it’s drawing such a defensive reaction. 

All that said, however, trolling is not intrinsically or always evil. Like many other rhetorical tricks, it can be used for good or for ill. So I was thrilled Tuesday night to see President Biden masterfully troll Republicans in a way that will leave them flat-footed and defensive for weeks, if not months. 

His method for baiting them was beautiful in its simplicity: He simply told the truth. 

“Some Republicans want Medicare and Social Security to sunset,” he said. This caused Republicans to freak out, booing and screaming. To use the language of right wing trolls, they were “triggered.” And that reaction ended up drawing more attention to the accusation. It created an incentive for mainstream journalists to publicize evidence that Republicans were lying. When Biden produced receipts proving he was speaking truth, it got coverage it wouldn’t have otherwise, but for the GOP tantruming. 

It’s the same trick Republicans used to, say, get the media to heavily cover false claims that Biden was going to ban gas stoves. The GOP designs on Social Security and Medicare, however, are just the cold, hard truth. Fair or not, ours is an era where a person who is defending themselves has usually already lost the public argument. Biden figured out how to put Republicans on their heels. Hopefully, he can keep it up. 

Marcotte’s recent writings on Ron DeSantis’s truly terrifying recent actions — the removal of all books from all Florida school shelves until they can be evaluated to make sure they meet the far-right’s guidelines and do not teach children honest accounts of history or any “woke” ideas about compassion, equality, and empathy — have been excellent.

Oh, also . . . Florida Republicans have said they may be burning the books they find offensive. Because there’s very little point in going half-Nazi.